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The World Boardgaming Championships is a convention held yearly since 1999 by the Boardgame Players Association. It is typically held in in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was last held August 5 to August 10, 2008. It is next scheduled for August 4 to August 9, 2009[1]. This convention replaced Avaloncon, which had been run from 1991 to 1998 by Avalon Hill. [2]
Each year, the convention pulls approximately 1,500 people from around the world compete to be named champion of their favorite games. By vote, BPA members select the 100 or so games (the “Century Group”) in which competitions are scheduled. It is not necessary to be invited or to be an expert player to compete in tournaments. Many events include scheduled demonstrations that explain the rules.
The annual Charles S. Roberts Award for historical boardgames, originally presented at the Origins Game Fair, is now presented at the World Boardgaming Championships.
History
In 1999, WBC was borne out of the ashes of the fallen Avaloncon. The new owner of the Avalon Hill brand was not interested in continuing the conference. It's attendees, however, were not ready to let the convention go. Many contacted Don Greenwood, urging him to continue the conference under a different name and promising their support. One such was Scott Pfeiffer, an attorney from South Carolina who offered his services to set up a corporate structure. Bruno Passacantando, a Connecticut CPA handled the financial end, and Steve Okonski and Hank Burkhalter rode to the rescue with webmaster services. About 700 members stepped up to the plate with varying degrees of financial support, and the Boardgame Players Association (BPA) was borne.
A Board of Directors, composed of nine members to be elected annually in sets of three for three-year terms, was established. A survey of the new association membership was taken to determine the course and name of this new venture.
The new format, while adopting the traditions and records of Avaloncon as its base, threw open the events to board and non-collectible card games of any manufacturer. The sponsorship and encouragement of GMT and others filled the void of the now absent Avalon Hill. To accommodate the influx of new events from more publishers, the convention expanded, starting Tuesday evening at 6 PM. To preserve the focus of the convention, a quota of 100 tournaments (termed the Century) was borne with a set formula for culling poor performers and adding new blood in a fair way that did not overly penalize long or short games.
By 2000, the fledgling BPA was looking for other ways to support its membership. One of the first efforts was adding play-by-e-mail tournaments. Further, two dedicated weekend mini-cons were added for fans of Breakout Normandy (D-Day) and Age of Renaissance (Enlightenment). That year also marked the appearance of the WBC Yearbook, a recap of all the events at WBC complete with winner’s pictures. The BPA website broke new ground with coverage of each event both prior to and after the conference. The conference continued to grow. Five events broke the triple digits, led by Settlers of Catan (which tied the attendance record at 175).
